Expected benefits include improved planning visibility and a reduction in production time and costs

Preactor International, the world’s leading specialist planning and scheduling Software Company, announces a major business win with Euroclad Facades Limited. The business specialises in the manufacture of rainscreen façades, decorative weather resistant skins fixed to the exterior of a building, for the construction industry.

The £4m Cardiff based business is part of the Euroclad group and has ambitious plans to double the size of its current operation. Mike Paley, Euroclad Facades’ Operations Manager explains why the company sees its investment in Preactor production planning and scheduling technology as a vital part of this strategy.

“Like many other businesses we initially scheduled production using a spreadsheet that we had developed. We thought this worked well, however, as the business and the number of orders grew it became evident that the system wasn’t intelligent enough to do all that was required of it.”

Euroclad found itself not being able to accurately predict future delivery dates, duplicating data that already existed in its ERP system and spending too much time manually updating its production schedule. It was then that the company looked to The Scheduling Company and Preactor software for a solution. Key requirements of the system were that it would need to improve forecasting accuracy, improve the flow of work through the manufacturing process and reduce the time spent updating an Excel based system.

Within 2 months of choosing to invest in Preactor 200, the system was live and scheduling production. Preactor is linked to the company’s ERP system that uses bar code technology to monitor the status of all manufactured parts which results in Preactor providing what Paley describes as a, “very ‘live’ picture of production status. “

He goes on to describe the aspects of Preactor’s comprehensive functionality that the company has found most beneficial so far. “The drag and drop functionality is very useful for putting in those last minute urgent orders that will always exist. As is the ability to host the schedule on our Intranet site so that all employees within the Euroclad group have visibility of the manufacturing schedule and an understanding of current lead times and demands on resources.”

While still early days, Euroclad is confident that its investment will deliver a reduction in workload that is associated with maintaining a manual scheduling system. It also anticipates a reduction in production time through better planning and reduced risk of claims from customers arising from late deliveries.

Commenting on the implementation as a whole, Paley is very positive about his experience with the Scheduling Company. “From our initial enquiry through to system development, installation, and training and after sales support, The Scheduling Company and Darryl Dickinson have continuously provided an excellent service.”

Looking to the future, Euroclad anticipates potentially upgrading to Preactor P300 or P400 as and when there is the justification to do so.